


Once Upon A Time

by choppyVy



Series: Decades To The Left [1]
Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: 2x10, Brothers, Canon Continuation, Childhood, Childhood Trauma, Gen, Memories, kid!Alex, kid!Gregory, unprovoked violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:54:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24287695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choppyVy/pseuds/choppyVy
Summary: There are things Gregory cannot forget, does not want to forgive. It has him wondering about all the moments, all the days, Alex might not remember.
Relationships: Alex Manes & Gregory Manes, Alex Manes & Jesse Manes, Alex Manes & Kyle Valenti
Series: Decades To The Left [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1753303
Comments: 3
Kudos: 47





	Once Upon A Time

Alex does not understand.

  
He does not understand what happened today. And that more than anything has him lying here in his bed, hiding. Crying muffled by his covers and a pillow, and his favourite stuffed animal.

They had gone on a fun trip with Gregory, Kyle and his dad.

There had been flowers, and he had picked one, shown it to Kyle, “Look how pretty. I’m going to take it home. Maria loves flowers too. Gonna show it to her.”

All he remembers then is laced with pain.

A hand grabbing for his wrist, squeezing it too tight, as the flower had been ripped from his grasp, thrown to the ground. “Manes men don’t have time for silly games.”

Worry growing in Alex’s eyes is turned into tears as a hand slaps him across his face, Alex only not falling to the ground with its force because of the other hand bruising his wrist still.

Tears turning into sobs.

“Shut up!”

Quieted. Swallowed.

Kyle’s dad really loud and angry too after that, and Alex had felt only sicker, hearing his name shouted a lot by both men.

‘My fault.’

He hears the bedroom door open and close, hears footsteps and stills under the covers.

His instincts already tuned into what he is not conscious of yet. He is meant to be a quiet boy.

A whisper. “Alex?”

‘Gregory.’ Alex’s limbs loose some of the tension as he whispers back, voice watery and half swallowed by the covers he is still buried under, “Yeah?”

“Wanna come sleep in my bed tonight?”

Alex pushes at the covers, pushes them off himself until Gregory comes into view. The image dulled only by the tears in Alex’s eyes, otherwise perfectly adjusted to the dark of the room the brothers share.

Alex nods tentatively, worrying his lips against each other, his favourite stuffed animal Liz the lizard clutched tightly to his chest, wet with tears.

Gregory biting his lower lip nods at him, tiptoes over to his own bed on the opposite side of the room.

Feet already hanging from the side of his bed, Alex, with a glance to their room’s door, light still shining through from under it, hesitates.

“It’s okay, Alex. When I brushed my teeth, I heard him talking on the phone downstairs. He won’t hear you.”

Gregory watches Alex, Liz clutched tighter to his chest, cross the room.

They climb under the covers together.

They don’t say anything.

Feeling safe with Gregory there right next to him, Alex is fast asleep within minutes, the day’s events having exhausted him.

Gregory keeps watching Alex, keeps watching the door, waits. For the light in the house to be extinguished. For some sense of safety to settle around them. For some hours at least.

Only then will he fall asleep.

Decades to the right:

Gregory worries after today’s talk with Alex, cannot stop worrying, about the memories Alex carries. But also about all the ones he does not. 'Too tiny.'

He knows, being angry hurts, steals away too much of your energy to have anything much left for yourself.

So he had meant it, if his little brother can forgive, for his own sanity’s sake, good. But Jesse Manes ….

“… he’ll never deserve it, Alex.”

**Author's Note:**

> Those two stole my soul last episode.


End file.
